reminiscence of(yet) a (novice)trader

[darktone]

The chart is Dax monthly, the time span we considered was a little over 2.5 years.

Q) How many trades would you have had to close at a loss in the price action shown in the chart below?

Trade parameters:-
i) The trend = a close above the MA
ii) You only trade in the direction of the trend
iii) Your positions are sized appropriately
vi) No new positions opened in the first or last bar of the chart

1 / 100 / 100,000 trades taken in that time, with the aim of taking a profit when its offered you. The answer, providing you trade within the above parameters, is still 0 losses.

 

[aag100]

update for last 3 weeks.
a -225,a +50 and a +90.
i think that loss was a seminal moment.i made all my classic mistakes and knew i really had to think about what i was doing.i ran 4 dax short positions to -350 before finally cutting at -297 all because i didnt want to take a loss of -40.it knocked my confidence but what made me jump back onto the horse was the fact that i knew i had let it beat me to that extent and if i didnt want to suffer such a defeat again,all i had to do was cut it sooner,especially when i knew the bias had changed(at -40 on that occasion).
i have no doubt i have said it before,to cut losses.yet in the back of my mind i didnt want to let them go,i always wanted to win them back.i have finally accepted the fact and thats why this makes it a seminal moment.i was also taking trades when there was no trades to be made,trying to force money out of the market.
patience and discipline are mentioned frequently in trading.id like to add to that.you dont have to be patient and disciplined but supremely patient and disciplined.

 

[Forexmospherian]

I would agree that patience and discipline are very important for trading - and if you had a stop in place on everyone of those trades that went over say 25 or 30 pips the wrong way - you would be about 250 + pips better off

BUT

The real crux of the matter is reading price action - ideally at the "coalface" or certainly on an intraday basis - so you can make more profitable trades.

Its does take time - maybe 5000+ hr of trading etc - which might be 3 or 5 year or even longer

Yes - get your disciplines in place - this is the easy part

The hard part is the study devotion and commitment of learning to read PA at a proper level - that is the crux and is still needed in the equation of success.

Not many really get there as you know

I wish you well

Regards


F

 

[aag100]

I would agree that patience and discipline are very important for trading - and if you had a stop in place on everyone of those trades that went over say 25 or 30 pips the wrong way - you would be about 250 + pips better off

BUT

The real crux of the matter is reading price action - ideally at the "coalface" or certainly on an intraday basis - so you can make more profitable trades.

Its does take time - maybe 5000+ hr of trading etc - which might be 3 or 5 year or even longer

Yes - get your disciplines in place - this is the easy part

The hard part is the study devotion and commitment of learning to read PA at a proper level - that is the crux and is still needed in the equation of success.

Not many really get there as you know

I wish you well

Regards


F

3-5 years-check
3000-5000hrs-check
patience and discipline-check
now to make some money.just found your live calls thread.i think we have a similar approach,will be delving into that further.

 

[Splitlink]

i must have wrote that about a year ago and perhaps i wasnt too sure of whether to use stops or not.now i can tell you absolutely that i dont use stops.i solely rely on the bias of my patterns.imo the size of the stop should be in relation to your time frame,the bigger your time frame,the bigger the required stop.
if i used stops now,10-50 even 100 would have been repeatedly taken out and then reversed.now i can better control that gut churning feeling of watching a trade going against me and not have the added anxiety of worrying about a stop being hit.i know when the bias is against me and can cut it or sit through it waiting for the bias to come back onside and then even add to get out with a smaller loss.
this has been trading without trading.keep in touch

Don't you ever have crashes or unexpected shut downs? I think some sort of stop is necessary for those reasons, if nothing else.

My dealer's platform went through a phase where, although I had closed the trade and I had a contract note to prove it, the trade had not been taken off the board. When I turned onto the site I had this profit and loss column flashing at me and, on a couple of occasions, it was showing a loss of 150 points. Scared the pip out of me. Sometimes, it was a handsome profit. There ws no problem, it was a technical thing but it did show me how a trade could go if left on with no stop.

So, although I like your thread, the stop thing, with me, is no option. I have to have one.

 

[Pat494]

NURSE ...........


smack his bottom - will ya ?

 

[Splitlink]

NURSE ...........


smack his bottom - will ya ?

Warn her, though. There's life in the old dog yet!

 

[aag100]

NURSE ...........


smack his bottom - will ya ?

be sure shes pretty.anything less then a 10 wont do.

 

[darktone]

update for last 3 weeks.
a -225,a +50 and a +90.
i think that loss was a seminal moment.i made all my classic mistakes and knew i really had to think about what i was doing.i ran 4 dax short positions to -350 before finally cutting at -297 all because i didnt want to take a loss of -40.it knocked my confidence but what made me jump back onto the horse was the fact that i knew i had let it beat me to that extent and if i didnt want to suffer such a defeat again,all i had to do was cut it sooner,especially when i knew the bias had changed(at -40 on that occasion).
i have no doubt i have said it before,to cut losses.yet in the back of my mind i didnt want to let them go,i always wanted to win them back.i have finally accepted the fact and thats why this makes it a seminal moment.i was also taking trades when there was no trades to be made,trying to force money out of the market.
patience and discipline are mentioned frequently in trading.id like to add to that.you dont have to be patient and disciplined but supremely patient and disciplined.

What was the average price of those 4 dax shorts?

 

[aag100]

Don't you ever have crashes or unexpected shut downs? I think some sort of stop is necessary for those reasons, if nothing else.

My dealer's platform went through a phase where, although I had closed the trade and I had a contract note to prove it, the trade had not been taken off the board. When I turned onto the site I had this profit and loss column flashing at me and, on a couple of occasions, it was showing a loss of 150 points. Scared the pip out of me. Sometimes, it was a handsome profit. There ws no problem, it was a technical thing but it did show me how a trade could go if left on with no stop.

So, although I like your thread, the stop thing, with me, is no option. I have to have one.

like i said i no longer have the added anxiety of stops being taken out.however i still do ponder the issue.i have thought of what would happen if there ever was such a massive blow out,a black swan event.and i have come to the conclusion that i will be getting in touch with my broker to tell them to close out my positions automatically when there isnt sufficient money left in the account.what had happened previously is they would email/phone me a margin call to top up funds.so now i only leave in the account what im prepared to lose,all surplus will be siphoned off to an offshore account the b******* cant touch.
eg say i had 10k in my account and margin calls started to come in at 7k.if they havent closed me out by 10k they can go f*** themselves.
thats my thought at the moment.

 

[darktone]

or better still, can you put up the times you opened and closed each position. no need to know size etc.

 

[aag100]

like i said i no longer have the added anxiety of stops being taken out.however i still do ponder the issue.i have thought of what would happen if there ever was such a massive blow out,a black swan event.and i have come to the conclusion that i will be getting in touch with my broker to tell them to close out my positions automatically when there isnt sufficient money left in the account.what had happened previously is they would email/phone me a margin call to top up funds.so now i only leave in the account what im prepared to lose,all surplus will be siphoned off to an offshore account the b******* cant touch.
eg say i had 10k in my account and margin calls started to come in at 7k.if they havent closed me out by 10k they can go f*** themselves.
thats my thought at the moment.

and another thing i try to do to try and mitigate such an occurence is to not hold positions overnight or over the weekend.

 

[aag100]

or better still, can you put up the times you opened and closed each position. no need to know size etc.

it was a tuesday 26/8/14 a day i remember well..........
short at 11.55 9496 12.01 9498 12.20 9511 closing all at 16.54 9586.i thought i had another 1 or 2 positions but turns out there was just 3.so i stuck to atleast 1 rule of not having more than 3 trades.
i made my usual classic mistakes.i wasnt going to repeat them as im sure you are all sick of hearing them as much as i am but to reinforce those neural connections i shall-entries too close to each other
-pattern wasnt quite there
-didnt cut on bias change at around 9520.once again this is by far the biggest mistake.all others can be forgiven but this one is hardest to forgive.and i shall try harder to remember.
i now know i have the confidence to win it back and its far damn easier to win back 40-50 points than 200-300.i just still(or rather then) didnt want to take any losses.

 

[aag100]

ive been thinking about this awhile.
im looking for 1 or 2 like minded individuals who would like to converse live during the trading day on a social media platform,something like whatsapp perhaps.i think it could be mutually beneficial and if not,it wont have cost nowt.
anyone interested,let me know.i know something like this would have been beneficial to me a couple of years back.now i want trading not to be so lonely and tedious.humour is a must,a couple of years trading experience,beneficial.technical analysis our main weapon.i dont care for fundamentals,over analysis and conjecture,past history and reams of data.the only fundamentals i concern myself are those which are due during which times i try to sit on my hands unless im feeling particularly brave.
i think that covers it for now.

 

[aag100]

i was at a seminar a year or two back.im not sure if i heard correctly but do institutional traders look to make only about 6 points a day?

 

[aag100]

quick update.+200 points or so in the last 3-4 weeks since i last posted results.not brilliant but better than a loss.ive chased losses back from upto -200 numerous times.now i have to try not to get into those situations in the first place.i aggressively try to scalp back losing positions and then wonder if i would have been so aggressive if i wasnt losing and all those scalps to get me back to around break even would all have been profit?

 

[aag100]

cant remember which thread that co*k who dreamt of recession was on.hes a self proclaimed publicity whore as someone put it.
hes on a youtube video from 2010 showing how to pick up chicks in iran and then hes a master trader by 2012 and selling trading courses? good luck anyone purchasing them

 

[aag100]

my money will be safe on the isle of caymen!
well i was due a blow out and it happened yesterday.last 6 months ive been getting away with scalping back from losses of up to -300 numerous times.but yesterday i was short euro and it just kept going up.i was margin called and finally stopped out for -500.it was a relief.it shot up another 100 points in seconds after that(4 positions,that would have been another -400)
so the lesson is,only keep in your account what you are willing to blow.especially if you are like me and cant bring yourself to close out a losing trade in the hope it might come back.
so 1 of my fail safes worked-only have money in account which you are willing to forego.
2nd fail safe-my stop point,i ignored!
now will bring in a 3rd fail safe.will look at using a stop loss again.its frustratingly annoying to keep being stopped out but perhaps that is the best way forward to stop such blow outs.and with a proper strategy and edge in place perhaps you have to learn to accept winning 55% of the time and just inching forward rather than trying to make leaps and bounds.

 

[sethmo]

Well, that's why it's called a stop - you're supposed to stop! I know, I've been there, man. I know it's a cliche, but if you keep getting stopped out, maybe look at your system again. Like I've noticed with a lot of systems I've developed, a system that generates a lot of trades, that you filter is a bad system, because often you'll filter out good trades and chase bad ones and make up for it by making bigger or looser stops. Rather have a system that generates few trades with very few filters and tighter stops. Just my experience.

 

[Pat494]

You still haven't learnt self discipline, have you ?

You know what to do but don't do it !!

Have you thought another profession might suit your ambitions better ?

Can't think of one off-hand other than dog walking ?

:cheesy: